The invention relates to a tubular weapon with a weapon tube guided inside a cradle tube which is mounted stationary in the axial direction.
When ammunition is fired from a large-caliber weapon, high combustion temperatures develop inside the chamber and in the adjacent rifled section of the weapon tube, which results in a strong heating up of the tube walls. Thus, with a rapid firing sequence there is danger of the chamber wall temperature reaching the self-ignition temperature of the propellant charge for the respective ammunition. A firing pause is therefore normally scheduled when the tube wall temperature reaches approximately 170.degree. to 190.degree., so as to allow the tube to cool down.
A cooling system, which is arranged in the chamber region between the cradle tube and the weapon tube and is designed to avoid or reduce the number of firing pauses needed to allow the tube wall to cool down is disclosed in German published patent application DE 38 27 740 A1. This cooling system essentially consists of a continuous hollow space, through which a gaseous or liquid cooling agent can flow, the walls of which are formed by the adjacent surfaces for the cradle tube and the weapon tube.
The disadvantage of this known cooling system is that a relatively involved sealing system is required to avoid, among other things, problems with leaking seals in the frontal transition regions for weapon tube and cradle tube during the recoil and counter-recoil of the weapon.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a tubular weapon having a cooling system by means of which sealing problems in the transition region between the weapon tube and the cradle tube can be avoided safely and in a simple manner.